


Paradise on Earth

by iwtv



Category: Black Sails
Genre: (but not much), Anal Sex, Blowjobs, Everything is consensual, M/M, Masturbation, Multi, Past Mentions of Abuse, Rimming, Soft Ending, Some dom/sub undertones, Threesome - M/M/M, Voyeurism, beach romanticism, boys having fun, i mean basically this fic is just dirty, peach verse, possible underage, sexually explicit conversations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-19 23:43:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14248368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwtv/pseuds/iwtv
Summary: The boys decide to take a respite from the peach farm and go to a seaside inn. Leisure activities include lots of sex and talking about sex. Then Thomas decides to add more flavor and brings in a "gorgeous young fop." *Also I hope I didn't completely butcher Thomas's one line of Spanish, someone let me know if I did!





	Paradise on Earth

Sweat and the tang of sex permeated the inn room. Thomas inhaled it, watching James over him as he drove his cock into Thomas over and over until he was almost in a trance.

James lingered on the edge, face beatific with the pleasure he wrung from his husband. Thomas kept his legs wrapped tightly around him, anchoring them both.

“Look at me,” he whispered, voice shaking with tension. “Look at me.”

James opened his eyes. He had always been amazed that Thomas could speak during times like this. James had never been able to utter more than a few words here and there in the throes of passion.

He opened his eyes, little more than slits, and locked them with the blue ones looking back. Seeing Thomas so overtaken did it. He keened—a rare event—and his cock pulsed out its juices into Thomas. Thomas moaned and fisted himself until he also spilled. He let out a breathy laugh, feeling quite euphoric. James echoed it as he rolled onto his back. Once they’d caught their breaths Thomas scooted in close beside him and made lazy circles on James’s chest with his fingers.

“Day two of our seaside getaway and so far I’ve seen far more of your ass than the sea,” he quipped.

“Would you like to lodge a complaint with the innkeep?”

“Smartass.”

James grinned smugly and kissed his cheek. They fell quiet for a time. Thomas flipped onto his stomach and James ran his palm down Thomas’s bare back and over his rump. He loved this—just existing peacefully with Thomas mere inches away. Neither one of them had to worry about doing anything important today. Today was for just for them.

They had decided to travel to the coast, just a couple of hours removed from Savannah and make time for themselves. James had wanted the closeness of the sea again. He had not said anything about wanting Thomas’s closeness all to himself but they both knew it was implied.

So here they were, cloistered away in an inn that was part of The Black Kracken tavern downstairs.

“Do you think we’ll ever stop trying to make up for lost time?” James was asking him now as his mind drifted to this and that.

Thomas—head resting on an expansive but light carpet of James’s orange chest hair—shifted and snuggled over him.

“No, probably not,” he said. Then, after another minute, “Perhaps the more relevant question is, should we stop trying?”

James sifted his fingers through dark sandy hair, working through tiny knots Thomas had acquired from not brushing.

“You mean should we stop feeling as though we’re running after each other, afraid to look the other way for fear that one of us may disappear from the other again?”

Thomas turned around to face him. He stretched over James’s ample chest and propped himself on an elbow.

“That was sufficiently deeper than what I was asking for, but yes,” he replied with a small smile.

He rested his fingers in the little dip between James’s collarbone, then soothed over his left nipple, pushing on it with a thumb. James made a tiny noise.

“I’m happy with the way things are. I think,” said James.

Thomas raised his brows.

“You think?”

James ghosted a thumb over Thomas’s bottom lip until Thomas sucked it lightly into his mouth.

“I didn’t mean to sound uncertain,” James corrected. “It’s just…most of my life I was always content, but not really happy, not until you and Miranda. I don’t think I really knew the difference between the two words.”

“Oh James.”

Thomas sighed out his name. He bent down and kissed between the other man’s pectoral muscles, wrapping his arms around James and digging his hands under him as if to scoop him up. When he dropped all of his weight over James their cocks were pressed together. Thomas began moving, rutting against James until they were both hard again.

“Let me taste you here,” said James, touching his fingertips between the globes of Thomas’s ass as his eyes drifted softly over his face, still lidded from their earlier activities. Thomas bit his lower lip to hide his smile and turned his body around, still over James so that James’s face was right where it needed to be and Thomas could take down his cock.

James laved the flat of his tongue over the sensitive skin between Thomas’s balls and his rim, adding his spit to the velvety and dark fissure. He pulled Thomas open with his thumbs before forcing his tongue inside.

Thomas made a sound, his hole quivering in response. James sucked in a sharp breath as Thomas rolled his tongue all around his cockhead and took him down deep, hot mouth tight over his shaft.

James hummed as Thomas’s lips worked their magic. They pulled tight along his cock, engulfing him in Thomas’s wet heat. He drove his tongue against Thomas’s hole, pushing hard and feeling Thomas’s muscles contract helplessly. He licked with the tip of his tongue behind Thomas’s balls and Thomas whimpered, lips just touching James’s cockhead so that James felt the sound of his whimper escape his lips. He closed his eyes, threatening to get lost, but then had a better idea.

“I’m gonna make you come first,” he threatened in a voice low and thick like honey.

“We’ll see about that,” Thomas retorted. Before James could respond Thomas’s mouth slid down his entire cock. James’s body responded, bucking up into the touch, his cock screaming for more. He pressed a finger up against Thomas’s rim and worked it in next to his tongue until his finger was wet and full of Thomas’s aroma. Thomas had to stop touching him momentarily as his moans increased along with the size of his hole under James’s manipulation.

“Slow down,” he panted, though when he looked at James over his shoulder he wore a breathy smile. James felt his cock throb at Thomas’s want. He fucked a finger into Thomas until he could push in a second, then a third. Thomas was stroking him fast with a hand, then sucked him down mercilessly slow until James worried he’d lose at his own game.

So he pumped his fingers hard and deep, penetrating Thomas’s heat and watching as Thomas’s hole kept giving in to him over and over.

“Oh fuuuck,” Thomas croaked, his voice devolving into a whine. James knew he was ready. He grimaced and forced himself not to fuck up against the lips and tongue still playing with his cock. He spread Thomas’s ass wide and fucked all three fingers inside him, his own cock throbbing hard at the sight and sounds of his husband rapidly coming undone. Thomas came hard, moving his hips back and forth in time with James’s fingers.

“I knew it,” James said triumphantly. He added his pinky finger inside Thomas, wiggling them against his spot until Thomas was almost crying from pleasure. After a few more solid strokes on James’s shaft he was shooting out come. He shivered hard as Thomas’s tongue lapped at him, stimulating him further. In retaliation James rapidly wiggled all four fingers inside him until they were both destroyed by the other’s touch.

*

Thomas took a sip of his rose-red wine and let James slide another grape into his mouth.

“There were only two boys I wanted to fuck at Eton,” Thomas replied to James’s inquiry.

“Only two? You were there for over two years,” James replied dubiously.

“You specified fucking, not anything else,” Thomas reminded him with a grin.

James rolled his eyes and took a drink of his wine. He rested it on the bedside table and plucked several grapes from the bunch resting on his chest, popping them in his mouth. Thomas nudged him with an elbow.

“Quit eating them like bonbons. They are meant to be savored and to compliment the wine. Now it’s your turn. I want to know how many men you wanted while you were Flint.”

James pretended to look overwhelmed.

“How many I wanted? Christ, how much time do we have?”

Thomas grabbed a chunk of skin under James’s ribs and pinched.

“Ow!”

“Zealous whore!” Thomas chastised with delight. “All right then, I’ll re-phrase. How many you wanted to fuck.”

“Three. Two were crew members and one was another captain.”

James popped a single grape in his mouth and chewed casually, but Thomas had owl eyes, turning sideways to face him.

“Well, go on! I want details. What were their names? What did they look like?”

James snorted. “Jesus! I didn’t ask you for all the lewd bits!”

Thomas snorted, then licked his lips and reached down under the sheets to pet over James’s limp cock.

“Maybe it will arouse me,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

James laughed. “All right already, stop that or I won’t be able to tell you.”

*

“Here. Try this one.”

James kept looking at Thomas, running a hand over his bicep as Thomas reached for the grapes. He brought one large, plump fruit to James’s lips and James plucked it from him with his teeth and chewed. His face puckered.

“Mmm. What did you do, dip it in the wine?”

Thomas chuckled. “More like marinated them in it.”

James swallowed the grape and licked his lips.

“Do you intend to keep us intoxicated for the rest of our stay?”

Thomas traced over a nipple, then kissed it.

“Why not? As long as it doesn’t affect your performance.”

James quirked an eyebrow at him.

“You know precisely how many glasses of wine it takes before that happens.”

“Four and a half.”

“Correct.”

Thomas already had a leg over James. He moved it slightly and positioned himself over his husband, reaching between them and stroking their cocks together. James hummed and laid his head back against the sheets. He closed his eyes and let himself simply feel. Thomas stroked them languidly and rhythmically, like a ballad on a gently rolling sea. Every few seconds James felt his nerves burn sharply when Thomas’s thumb rolled over his slit. He rolled his hips, bucking gently until his need outgrew their pace.

Thomas kissed him on the mouth in the same way, his tongue skimming the surface of James’s mouth before diving deep and letting James devour him, then surfacing again. He worked them up until James was flushed over his neck and chest, then planted little kisses along those areas, murmuring about his fondness for the coppery orange hair everywhere.

James pressed his palms over Thomas’s thighs (he rarely commented about the soft hairs there but he knew Thomas knew he liked the way they felt under him), pressing a little harder as he need grew, until he felt his cock starting to leak, the familiar throb back.

“Fuck me like you’re touching me,” James whispered to him. Thomas lifted his head from where he was still kissing over James’s chest.

“Yes?”

“Yes.”

Thomas wet his cock and lined it up against James’s rim. James was already still open and Thomas pushed in easily. James hissed just a little from the slight burn, like the feeling over the fingertip when striking a match before the warmth of the flames touches skin.

The warmth touched him soon enough. Thomas shifted slightly over him, arms bracketing either side of him and ahh, there, as his cock found the right path inside James and began sliding back and forth.

James hummed again, sucking his bottom lips just barely under his teeth. Even after all this time he was still the more reserved of the two of them during love making. And just like the words ‘content’ and ‘happy,’ James had come to learn the difference between ‘reserved’ and ‘restrained.’ He used to be the latter as a shy navy lieutenant unused to true love’s touch. Now, however, he was simply reserved. Not because he was under the illusion he had to be, but because that was how he was.

Like many other things, it was something Thomas had helped reveal to him, piece by piece and layer by layer.

Now he let Thomas know in his reserved way that his partner was slowly pulling him apart at the seams. The lip was one way. James squeezed over Thomas’s rump and ran two fingers down his cleft. That was another way. Thomas’s lips quirked upwards at the sensation. He arched and rolled his back into his thrusts, causing his cock to fill James more sharply. This elicited a grunt from James, which Thomas delighted in hearing.

James watched as the sweat beaded Thomas’s forehead, his cheeks flushed and his eyes hooded. He bent down to kiss the pulse at James’s neck and James felt himself shudder from his gut down to his toes. Thomas kept his pace steady, letting James writhe under him as the subtle pressure they created began to grow between them.

James pushed his knees further apart, keeping himself from grinding into Thomas. His cock ached pleasantly. Thomas’s lips were at his ear.

_“Te sientes como el paraíso en la tierra,”_ he whispered.

James started. Thomas was speaking Spanish. He tried to catch the words but oh, Thomas rolled his hips and his cock moved against James’s prostrate. James dragged his fingers over Thomas’s back, bringing them up to cradle his neck. Thomas panted softly into his mouth. James felt his body tense up further. He groaned, eyes slipping shut.

“Wh—what does that mean?” he finally managed to ask.

“You tell me,” said Thomas.

James had understood ‘you’ and ‘earth.’ And perhaps…’paradise’? 

His eyes screwed shut in response to Thomas’s cock as it hit up against him just right. The feeling radiated deep in his groin and gut, spreading like a burn to all his nerves. Another moan escaped over his lips as a wave of heat broke out over him.

“Fuck you feel so good,” he mumbled out.

Thomas suddenly pulled all the way out and James’s eyes popped open and he cried out against it. But just as quickly as he’d exited James Thomas pushed his cock back in with one deep slide, then he fucked James with tiny little thrusts so that they were both scarcely able to breath, on edge for one long frozen moment. James clawed his fingers into the back of Thomas’s hair, pulling his face down. Thomas’s breath came out in strained puffs against James’s cheek.

“Oh fuck, please,” James finally begged, hand pressing hard against Thomas’s cleft.

Thomas’s let out a long ‘ohhh’ and James felt his seed shoot into him. Seconds later James tumbled down the edge with him, coming over his stomach. Thomas yanked his cock out and squeezed over it, coming the rest of the way over James’s cock. James watched, in a sexual daze, as bead after bead of thick white juice was squeezed out of Thomas’s cock. He scarcely paid attention to his own hand doing the same.

Thomas fell over him, kissing him sloppily. James grinded their cocks together, determined to rend every last ounce of pleasure out of them.

*

“I won’t tell you names, because you know these men from the stories I’ve told you,” said James. “And it would make me melancholy to speak of them after all that’s happened. But I will tell you what I envisioned doing to them.”

At this Thomas eagerly agreed. First, however, they both needed a small break from the bed and to wash up, even just a little. Thomas doused himself with a wet cloth and fresh water James did the same. They returned to the bed perhaps sooner than either had initially planned, but Thomas just grinned crookedly when James commented on his eagerness.

“Let me stretch out against you,” said Thomas as James fixed the oversized pillows and situated himself on them. He let Thomas stretch out in front of him, both of them on their side with the large pillows stuffed up against James’s back.

“Now, where was I?” James asked out loud.

Thomas twisted to rest his head against James’s arm.

“Details of your sexual fantasies with pirates,” said Thomas with absolutely no attempt at graciousness.

James couldn’t hold in his laugh. He smacked Thomas lightly on the ass.

“Hush. Now give me a moment, let me see…oh yes. Well, the crew member I first wanted to fuck was very built. And by that I mean he looked like a fucking greek statue. I’d never seen a man so muscled in my life, not even amongst the pirates I’d seen taken to the gallows. I imagined what that body would feel like under my touch, to know every line and contour of him and what his thighs and ass and legs would look like. I would suck on his nipples until they were the tight buds I’d seen when he worked without a shirt on, so peaked they had their own shadows.”

James watched with a smirk as Thomas’s hand disappeared down in front of him, arm slowly beginning to move as James spoke.

“Then I imagined I would work his cock until it was stiff under my touch. And he was so fucking big, I imagined. It would be a challenge to get my lips to his base, but I would try. I’d take him down until I gagged, then I’d pull off and try again. And when I looked up at him he’d be so overcome with my mouth and what it did to him he wouldn’t even care that I couldn’t fit him all in. He’d push my head to keep going and I’d suck him until he cried out he was going to come. Then I’d pull off and stop touching him, loving how he—one of the toughest-looking men in Nassau—whimpered like a baby when I didn’t let him come.”

Thomas stifled a moan.

“Yes, go on,” he huffed out.

James watched, biting his cheeks, as Thomas’s arm muscles worked harder. If he leaned forward just slightly he could almost see Thomas stroking himself. Thomas propped his leg up on the bed.

“I’d take him to my bunk and bid him lay down. Then I’d pin down his arms to his sides while I stroked and sucked him until my spit was running down his cock and it was red with blood, filled to the bursting point and he was panting like a dog, begging me for more.”

“Oh Christ,” muttered Thomas, along with something incomprehensible to James but James was about to burst out laughing. He stilled himself, clearing his throat to continue.

“And then when I knew I couldn’t touch his cock much more I’d make him sit up and suck my cock down.”

Now James pressed himself close against Thomas, dropping his voice an octave. He rested his hand over Thomas’s arm and felt it as Thomas touched himself. A small whine escaped the blonde.

“I’d fuck my cock into his mouth hard, holding the back of his skull so he couldn’t move and make him keep his hands on my thighs. I’d watch myself fucking him, until his lips were thick and swollen with my taste and my cock was aching.”

James dragged his hand down the length of Thomas’s arm until it covered his hand. Thomas was jerking himself fast now. James kissed the back of his neck.

“Then I’d come over his face and he would drink me down, telling me how much he wanted all of me. Then I’d lay down on the bunk and tell him to come on me.”

James gripped Thomas’s fist hard and forced it away from his cock.

“Oh fuck James,” Thomas bleated out.

James pumped Thomas’s cock, wrapping his other hand around Thomas’s throat. Thomas grinded into him, then thrusted forward into James’s fist until he came.

*

They finished eating downstairs and made their way back up to their room. Thomas took a newspaper with him and read off some events to James while James looked out the window and drank some ale.

“Thomas?”

“Hmm?”

“Before I entered into things with you and Miranda, did you ever…were you ever with three people before? Sexually?”

Thomas dropped the paper and raised his eyes.

“No. But I’ve told you this already, haven’t I?”

James looked away from the window and shook his head.

“No. I would have remembered a detail like that.”

Thomas frowned, thinking, then conceded his point.

“No, I don’t suppose I did then. Odd. But back to your question, I did have what I would call an interesting experience with two young men after I left Eton. One of them was as shameless as me and the other was clearly confused but willing. There was no intercourse but fun was had all around. It was a one-night-only special.”

James echoed his wry grin.

“You’ve already told me you haven’t been with more than one person before us,” Thomas said next. “That conversation I definitely remember.”

“You’ll remember anything if I had my clothes _on_ ,” teased James.

Thomas shrugged unrepentantly. 

*

Thomas had gone downstairs for some fresh air in-between their “sessions” as James came to call them, leaving him alone briefly in their room. When the knock came at the door James unlocked it and let him in, except Thomas wasn’t alone.

“James, this is Monsieur Gabriel Delacroix.”

Thomas stepped aside and the figure behind him shyly stepped forward, flashing a pair of olive eyes to James quickly and nodding. He was scarcely older than a boy—seventeen or eighteen perhaps—with milky-white flawless skin. His hair was reddish-brown and pulled back in a ponytail. He was dressed in an expensive but attractive looking rose-colored suit.

“Forgive the extremely short notice,” said Thomas with a contrite look. “But after our earlier conversations I happened upon Monsieur Delacriox in the tavern. He’s just arrived here from France. His father has dealings with some merchant captains and Gabriel is accompanying him, though he is free at the moment.”

James looked at Gabriel again, a bit baffled. Gabriel looked up at him with more courage this time. Thomas lightly touched his sleeve.

“I thought you might be up for a new experience, but please tell me if I had it wrong.”

“I can always return to the tavern and it is fine,” said Gabriel in heavily accented but clear English.

“No,” James said quickly as his mind began looking at the young Frenchman in a new light. He was very attractive.

Not long thereafter James found himself watching eagerly as Gabriel took off his clothing piece by piece, neither fast nor slow, eyeing him all the while. Thomas sat down on the room’s only sofa, legs splayed.

“I want to watch you play with him,” he said at James’s questioning gaze. James grinned wickedly. Gabriel shed his pants last and stood before James, a miracle of perfection. He was lean but well-fit, with the faintest of tan lines around his arms and calves. A nest of dark hair called attention to his cock, which was half-hard. James approached him and touched his arms comfortingly. He checked to make certain this was what Gabriel wanted. The boy nodded.

“Please,” the young Frenchman said in a thick voice. “It is so difficult to find opportunities when you’re like us. I’m sure you know this.”

James nodded, understanding. Gabriel took James’s hand and placed it over his cock, olive eyes asking and already lidded.

James worked Gabriel’s cock, learning it as he stroked it to life.

“Gabriel, I'd like you to suck James, if you don't mind,” Thomas said. James looked to Gabriel, unfastening his pants.

“Would you like to taste me?” he asked.

Gabriel nodded eagerly. “Yes, please!”

James pulled out his cock and Gabriel showed no fear, taking it in his hand and opening wide. James shuddered as Gabriel first licked all over him then began taking him down. His eyes looked up through thick lashes at James. James cupped the back of his head and encouraged him.

“Tell me how it feels,” Thomas said, rubbing a palm over his crotch from sofa. James watched him as he spoke.

“Warm and dripping wet,” said James. “Mmm, he’s…he’s not bad.”

Thomas groaned, sliding his hand inside his pants.

Gabriel did a fine job, though James helped him with gaining stamina, of alternating between sucking and teasing.

“Now I want Gabriel to eat you out,” said Thomas.

“Who put you in charge?” retorted James. But he was already kneeling on the bed, his pants off. Gabriel positioned himself behind him on all fours and spat on James’s cleft.

This proved to be Thomas’s weakness. His cock filled fully watching another man eat James out and do it with such zeal. Gabriel had his face buried in James’s ass, nose coming up every now and then past James’s cleft. James leaned back into it, his eyes fully hooded and small grunts coming from him. He pulled on his own cock underneath him, looking at Thomas over his shoulder. Thomas pushed his pants down and pulled out his cock so James could see.

“Fuck,” James mumbled. Gabriel spread his cheeks and angled his face so Thomas could see as his tongue drove into James’s hole.

“That’s it, you’re doing very well Gabriel,” Thomas praised.

 

When Thomas told Gabriel to fuck him James had his doubts, as Gabriel had admitted to being inexperienced in this area. But Gabriel’s cock filling him proved worth it. Gabriel was on his knees on the bed and James was on all fours before him, fisting the sheets as Gabriel fucked him. Thomas stood in front of them. James watched as he took pleasure from it, stroking his cock, which was nearly as distracting to James as being fucked was. Thomas was deep red, his veins throbbing. He at last tapped it lightly against James’s cheek and James opened wide.

Tasting Thomas was always so fun. He let Thomas’s cock push out a cheek, which made Thomas moan loudly, his fingertips coming to touch it. Then he let Thomas thrust inside of him, taking his pleasure while Gabriel made him full from behind, his cock sending rapid, thrumming vibrations to the rest of his body and making James sweat.

Sensing an opportunity, James slid his mouth off Thomas’s cock.

“Now it’s my turn,” he informed Thomas when he was done moaning over the loss of James’s mouth. James slapped Gabriel’s thigh, motioning for him to stop.

“Oh please, not now!” cried Gabriel. James chuckled, pulling off. He positioned Gabriel to kneel on the edge of the bed and told Thomas to taste Gabriel from behind.

“Oh yes,” mumbled Thomas, voice raw. He climbed on the bed behind the man and James put his mouth over Gabriel’s cock. Gabriel shuddered all over, gently touching James’s face. Seconds later Gabriel hummed in pleasure as Thomas had no doubt penetrated his hole with his wily tongue.

Gabriel was long, and James enjoyed the challenge, taking the boy down and keeping his cock slick with spit, working his shaft a little deeper each time. But Gabriel liked it best when James would pull off and tease him. He tried sucking one of Gabriel’s tight balls into his mouth to see what effect it would have on the boy. Gabriel threw his head back when James pulled it down lightly with his teeth. But then again that could have been because Thomas had spread the boy’s cheeks wider. James kissed his way around Gabriel’s thighs to see this, watching as Thomas narrowed his tongue and flicked its tip into Gabriel’s hole over and over again. Their eyes met.

“I can taste you in him,” Thomas said, and James felt his cock throb.

“Let me taste you,” said James. Their lips collided stormy ocean waves against the horizon.

*

They spent the last half an hour with Gabriel coming down from their exertions and feeding the lad the rest of the grapes and wine in thanks for his impressive participation. They chatted about his father’s business and Gabriel’s native France, then Gabriel said he needed to get back to his father. They said their good-byes.

“Well?” asked Thomas as soon as the door was shut. He was trying not to smile. “What did you think?”

“I think he was fantastic,” replied James. “I’m so glad I thought to bring him here.”

“Lying fiend!” Thomas declared. He tried to pinch-tickle James in the ribs again but James was ready for him and dodged out of the way.

*

Later that night, Thomas found himself at last in the presence of the sea. He loved the deep lullaby of the waves crashing and the roll of the surf. He could only imagine how content it made his partner. They strolled along its shore for some time. Then James purposefully led Thomas away from the inn.

“Are you certain it’s safe? What if there are guards?”

For an instant James almost laughed at the question, but then he remembered Thomas’s past ordeals and he turned, putting his hands on Thomas’s shoulders in the dark as they crept past the dock.

“I promise you, there are no guards. Not at this dock. That would happen only if it were under siege or there was a war. Now come on, we’re almost there.”

Thomas followed James the rest of way, far from the docks and onto wild beach.

“This looks like a good spot,” Thomas commented.

James nodded. There was no one else around and no lights from any establishments this far out. They stripped off their clothes and left them neatly folded on the rocks. James tested the waters, making sure the ground underneath was mostly sand. He beckoned for Thomas to join him and they waded out together, until they could let the water help them float.

“Look at the sky,” said Thomas with wonder. James looked up at the same blanket of stars he’d seen from the deck of The Walrus countless times. He knew some people thought the night sky was intimidating or even cold, but it filled him with a strange comfort. He looked back to Thomas, able to see the light reflected in his eyes.

“Still nothing compared to you,” he said softly.

“You’re being grossly romantic again,” replied Thomas.

They kissed and stayed close together. James planted his feet on the ground and twined their legs together. The sensation of Thomas’s skin against his underwater was new and exciting. He ran his palms over Thomas’s taut stomach and around to his back. Thomas kissed a bicep high up on James and where his clusters of freckles were most dense.

“Mmm, saltier than usual,” he remarked with a smile. “Well, except for today,” he added seductively. That earned him a crooked grin.

“You know,” he began, “When you used to return from the sea back in London I could always tell you’d been there. I would close my eyes just for a moment when you stood beside me and get a whiff of the sea air from you. After those long three months apart, when you finally walked inside my house and I smelled that scent, I was nearly beside myself.”

Thomas was gently stroking his thumbs through James’s beard. James pressed his forehead against the side of his face.

“I remember. The look in your eyes was almost too much. You have no idea how hard it was not to fall apart in your arms.”

Thomas nuzzled his face into the crook of James’s neck. James sighed happily. Then he felt Thomas gyrate his hips into James, making their cocks touch.

“I wonder….can we become aroused right now?”

James chuckled. “Do you ever think about anything else?”

“Pfft. You’re one to talk. You’re the one keeping me prisoner in that room, a slave to your sexual indulgences.”

James guffawed loudly. “Stop. Please. And to answer your question I think we can, though perhaps it would be easier in more shallow water.”

Naturally Thomas started walking towards the shore but James stopped him.

“Wait a moment. I want to show you how to float.”

“Excuse me?”

James bit back a grin. “Like this. Watch.”

He gently pushed his feet off the sandy bottom and allowed his legs to float up, rocking his top half back until he was floating.

“Lord James, I haven’t even swum since I was a young boy.”

“I thought as much,” said James. “Now here. You try. It’s not difficult, it just takes time to trust the water.”

It took Thomas several tries to do so, but once he managed to relax enough and let the water do the rest he smiled. James was struck by how beautiful he looked in the starlight. The water clung to Thomas here and there, exposing the small mounds of his chest and tops of his shoulders and thighs and a hint of his cock. The water glittered in the dark around him. James wished he could have drawn him so.

When they did make it back to shore they decided it best to return to the inn before engaging in anything more than some kisses. They had dried off and dressed. Thomas was gazing skyward again so James joined him, until he heard Thomas give a burdensome sigh and sniff. James moved to face him, becoming alarmed.

“What’s wrong?”

Tears hovered like moist jewels in Thomas’s eyes. He wiped them away as they spilled and smiled.

“Nothing is wrong. I just never, ever expected…this.”

He motioned at James and everything around them.

“Sometimes,” said Thomas, “it’s still hard to grasp that day in the fields when you came to me. I thought I’d never know joy again. I thought…”

James made a strangled sound and quickly enveloped his husband in a hug, squishing him close as his own eyes began to water. Thomas gave a little chuckle and said in a strained tone, “You’re cutting off my air, dear heart.”

“Sorry.”

James released him but held Thomas’s gaze until their foreheads were touching. Neither of them spoke for long minutes. Then Thomas said quietly, “Thank you for this, the trip and the inn and tonight and all of it. I feel alive again.”

“So do I,” James replied gently. “So do I. And by the way," he added, speaking Thomas's Spanish back to him, "You also feel like paradise on earth."

**Author's Note:**

> * The "gorgeous young fop" quote is from "Interview with the Vampire" and if you've seen the movie, you'll recall the young man Lestat plans to snack on later on. He's who I'm imagining for this. >:)
> 
> Leave me comments and come hang out with me on tumblr @iwt-v.


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